Croatian cinema
| Cinema of Croatia | |
|---|---|
| No. of screens | 146 (2011) |
| • Per capita | 3.7 per 100,000 (2011) |
| Main distributors |
Blitz Film&Video 58.0% Discovery 20.0% Continental Film 11.0% |
| Produced feature films (2011) | |
| Fictional | 6 |
| Animated | - |
| Documentary | 3 |
| Number of admissions (2011) | |
| Total | 3,536,027 |
| • Per capita | 0.9 (2012) |
| National films | 92,855 (2.6%) |
| Gross box office (2011) | |
| Total | HRK 103 million |
The cinema of Croatia has a somewhat shorter tradition than what is common for other Central European countries: the serious beginning of Croatian cinema starts with the rise of the Yugoslavian film industry in the 1940s. Three Croatian feature films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, several of them gained awards at major festivals, and the Croatian contribution in the field of animation is particularly important.
Although motion pictures appeared in Croatia relatively early, for most of the early 20th Century film was almost exclusively the domain of a few dedicated amateur enthusiasts, most notably Josip Karaman in Split and, later, Oktavijan Miletić in Zagreb. In 1906, the first permanent movie theater was established in Zagreb.
Josip Halla produced and directed early documentaries during 1911. and 1912. (Plitvice, Sinjska alka). The first full-length movie was Brcko u Zagrebu released in 1917, and directed by Arsen Maas. It was followed by Matija Gubec, released in the same year and directed by Aca Binički. Neither of these movies survive to this day. In 1918, Croatia film produced additional 5 movies all directed by Josip Halla before the proprietor dissolved the company.
Croatia lacked the political and economic infrastructure to support its own cinema industry. The most serious effort in that direction before World War II was the series of educational films produced by Škola narodnog zdravlja.
The cinema of Croatia became an institution after the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) in 1941. The new Ustaše regime quickly realised the need for modern propaganda tools modeled on those of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. After serious lobbying of these two governments for technical advice and resources, the first propaganda films were made in late 1941. Croatian filmmakers like Branko Marjanović produced in 1943 the documentary Straža na Drini which later won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, attended by Axis power countries. After the collapse of NDH in 1945, Tito's victorious Communists also recognised the importance of the film industry and decided to build their own. Many technicians and co-workers of the Ustaše propaganda cinema industry during the war were in fact double agents working for the partisan side, with one main task: to keep the technical facilities untouched upon the collapse of NDH. Therefore, the new regime inherited the technical equipment, and more importantly trained personnel, including directors and top officials. The result of such a policy was the rapid development of the Croatian film industry, although initially under jurisdiction of the federal government in Belgrade.
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Wikipedia